Conciseness

The body is dense with executable commands and Depot-specific facts Claude would not know (builder pricing, autoscaling behavior, registry subdomains), with almost no explanation of familiar concepts. Minor trimmable redundancy remains: the `--cache-from type=gha` warning appears both in the Migration section and again in the Common Mistakes table, and the Registry prose (pull-through cache details, token scoping) runs long — so it sits at "efficient with minor over-explanation" rather than "every token earns its place".

Actionability

Fully executable, copy-paste-ready commands throughout: `depot build -t repo/image:tag . --push`, a complete HCL bake file example, per-service compose YAML, and error-specific fixes such as `DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.52 depot build --load .` and `--provenance=false` for unknown/unknown. Specific examples cover the common cases (build, load, push, save, multi-platform, secrets, migration).

Workflow Clarity

Sequences are clear where they matter — compose integration ("depot bake -f docker-compose.yml --load" then "docker compose up") and the migration steps — and verification signals exist (`--lint`, `--print`, "look for [depot] prefix in logs", `depot image list --output json`). It falls short of a 5 because there are no explicit validate-then-proceed feedback loops, though the skill is a command reference rather than a fragile multi-step pipeline, so the missing-loop cap for destructive/batch operations does not apply.

Progressive Disclosure

The body is a well-sectioned 272-line monolith with no bundle files and no references: specialized content that clearly belongs in separate reference files — the ~40-line Depot Registry section (pull-through cache, token scopes), special output formats (estargz/zstd/SOCI), and the pricing/autoscaling details — is inlined in SKILL.md. This matches the 3 anchor ("content that should be separate is inline"); the under-50-line simple-skill exception does not apply at this length, and it is not a 4 because there are no references at all to be "mostly clear".

Specificity

Lists multiple concrete actions — "Configures and runs Depot remote container builds", "pushing images to registries", "building multi-platform/multi-arch images", "debugging container build failures", "optimizing Dockerfile layer caching", "migrating from `docker build`" — with comprehensive coverage of build, push, multi-platform, debug, cache, bake, and migration use cases. No minor gaps in action coverage that would justify a 4.

Completeness

Explicitly answers both questions: the "what" ("Configures and runs Depot remote container builds using `depot build` and `depot bake`") and the "when" via two explicit trigger clauses ("Use when building Docker images..." and "Also use when the user mentions depot build, depot bake...") with concrete trigger phrases. Third-person voice throughout, so no voice penalty applies.

Trigger Term Quality

Comprehensive natural-term coverage including synonyms ("multi-platform/multi-arch", "container builds, image builds", "docker build / docker buildx build") and file names ("docker-bake.hcl", "docker-compose"), plus product-specific phrases users would say ("depot build", "build cache", "build autoscaling", "ephemeral registry").

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clear Depot niche with distinct branded triggers ("depot build", "depot bake", "ephemeral registry"), but the unqualified triggers "building Docker images" and "creating Dockerfiles" can fire on generic Docker build requests where Depot isn't intended — minor overlap risk with closely related Docker/build skills. Not a 5 because conflict risk is more than minimal; not a 3 because the bulk of triggers are unambiguously Depot-specific.